Chad Gadya

Chad Gadya or Had Gadya (Aramaic: חַד גַדְיָא chad gadya, "one little goat, or "one kid"; Hebrew: "גדי אחד gedi echad") is a playful cumulative song in Aramaic and Hebrew.^[1] It is sung at the end of the Passover Seder, the Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The melody may have its roots in Medieval German folk music.^[2] It first appeared in a Haggadah printed in Prague in 1590, which makes it the most recent inclusion in the traditional Passover seder liturgy.^[3]

The song is popular with children and similar to other cumulative songs:^[4] Echad Mi Yodea, ("Who Knows 'One'?") another cumulative song, is also in the Passover Haggadah.

^ Birnbaum, Philip, The Birnbaum Haggadah (1976, NY, Hebrew Publ'g Co.) page 156 ("phrased in the simplest style of Aramaic-Hebrew"); similarly, Birnbaum, Philip, Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts (1975, NY, Hebrew Publ'g Co.) page 203, s.v. Had Gadya; Cohen, Jeffrey M., 1001 Questions and Answers on Pesach (1996, NJ, Jason Aronson Inc.) page 173 ("a variation of a popular German folk song, .... its Aramaic is faulty,..."); Guggenheimer, Heinrich, The Scholar's Haggadah (1995, NJ, Jason Aronson Inc.) page 390 ("questionable Aramaic"); Glatzer, Nahum N., The Schocken Passover Haggadah (1996, NY, Schocken Books) page 119 ("written in poor Aramaic with a scattering of Hebrew words....").
^ Roth, Cecil, The Haggadah, A New Edition (1959, London, Soncino Press) page 85 ("Some pundits assert that the Had Gadya is based upon the famous old German nursery-rhyme, Der Herr der schickt den Jokel aus, which was generally sung upon the feast of St. Lambert (September 17th); itself, as a matter of fact, probably the imitation of an older French original. This theory is by no means surely established," The German nursery rhyme is included in Kohut, George Alexander, "Le Had Gadya et les Chansons Similaires", Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. 31 (nr. 62), (Paris, Oct–Dec 1895) pages 243–244; it begins "The boss (or the Lord) sent the yokel out to mow the grain, but the yokel didn't mow the grain and he didn't come home. So the boss sent his poodle to bite the yokel, but the poodle didn't bite him and the yokel didn't mow ....." and goes on and on finally to send out the Devil to take the executioners who failed to hang the butcher who was supposed to slaughter the ox which was sent to drink the water that was meant to put out the fire that was sent to burn the whip that was sent to beat the poodle, and finally the boss comes himself and all those tasks are finally done. There is also a French nursery rhyme, "The Old Woman and her Pig", with a similar listing – but it is significant that in both the German and French nursery rhymes that characters are reluctant and refuse to do their natural or assigned activities, whereas in Had Gadya "the position is absolutely reversed.... the agents display no manner of unwillingness to perform the work of destruction, to exhibit their mastery over their inferiors." Abrahams, Israel, Festival Studies: Being Thoughts on the Jewish Year (1906, Philadelphia) page 108.
^ Roth, Cecil, The Haggadah, A New Edition (1959, London, Soncino Press) page 85; Idelsohn, Abraham Z., Jewish Music in Its Historical Development (1929, NY, Henry Holt & Co.) page 361; Idelsohn, Abraham Z., Jewish Liturgy and It Development (1932, NY, Henry Holt & Co.) page 186; Nulman, Macy, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson Inc.) page 145, s.v. Had Gadya. It did not appear in a Haggadah printed in Prague in 1526, but it did appear in the 1590 Prague Haggadah accompanied by a German translation. The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906, NY) vol. 8 page 190 s.v. "Had Gadya".
^ For example, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", This Is the House That Jack Built and, begging the reader's pardon, The Twelve Days of Christmas. George Alexander Kohut provided a bibliography of comparable poems in his article "Le Had Gadya et les Chansons Similaires", Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. 31 (nr. 62), (Paris, Oct–Dec 1895) pages 240–246; also, Newell, William Wells, "The Passover Song of the Kid and an Equivalent from New England", Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol.18, nr. 68 (Jan–March 1905) pages33-48.

[1] Birnbaum, Philip, The Birnbaum Haggadah (1976, NY, Hebrew Publ'g Co.) page 156 ("phrased in the simplest style of Aramaic-Hebrew"); similarly, Birnbaum, Philip, Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts (1975, NY, Hebrew Publ'g Co.) page 203, s.v. Had Gadya; Cohen, Jeffrey M., 1001 Questions and Answers on Pesach (1996, NJ, Jason Aronson Inc.) page 173 ("a variation of a popular German folk song, .... its Aramaic is faulty,..."); Guggenheimer, Heinrich, The Scholar's Haggadah (1995, NJ, Jason Aronson Inc.) page 390 ("questionable Aramaic"); Glatzer, Nahum N., The Schocken Passover Haggadah (1996, NY, Schocken Books) page 119 ("written in poor Aramaic with a scattering of Hebrew words....").

[2] Roth, Cecil, The Haggadah, A New Edition (1959, London, Soncino Press) page 85 ("Some pundits assert that the Had Gadya is based upon the famous old German nursery-rhyme, Der Herr der schickt den Jokel aus, which was generally sung upon the feast of St. Lambert (September 17th); itself, as a matter of fact, probably the imitation of an older French original. This theory is by no means surely established," The German nursery rhyme is included in Kohut, George Alexander, "Le Had Gadya et les Chansons Similaires", Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. 31 (nr. 62), (Paris, Oct–Dec 1895) pages 243–244; it begins "The boss (or the Lord) sent the yokel out to mow the grain, but the yokel didn't mow the grain and he didn't come home. So the boss sent his poodle to bite the yokel, but the poodle didn't bite him and the yokel didn't mow ....." and goes on and on finally to send out the Devil to take the executioners who failed to hang the butcher who was supposed to slaughter the ox which was sent to drink the water that was meant to put out the fire that was sent to burn the whip that was sent to beat the poodle, and finally the boss comes himself and all those tasks are finally done. There is also a French nursery rhyme, "The Old Woman and her Pig", with a similar listing – but it is significant that in both the German and French nursery rhymes that characters are reluctant and refuse to do their natural or assigned activities, whereas in Had Gadya "the position is absolutely reversed.... the agents display no manner of unwillingness to perform the work of destruction, to exhibit their mastery over their inferiors." Abrahams, Israel, Festival Studies: Being Thoughts on the Jewish Year (1906, Philadelphia) page 108.

[3] Roth, Cecil, The Haggadah, A New Edition (1959, London, Soncino Press) page 85; Idelsohn, Abraham Z., Jewish Music in Its Historical Development (1929, NY, Henry Holt & Co.) page 361; Idelsohn, Abraham Z., Jewish Liturgy and It Development (1932, NY, Henry Holt & Co.) page 186; Nulman, Macy, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson Inc.) page 145, s.v. Had Gadya. It did not appear in a Haggadah printed in Prague in 1526, but it did appear in the 1590 Prague Haggadah accompanied by a German translation. The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906, NY) vol. 8 page 190 s.v. "Had Gadya".

[4] For example, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", This Is the House That Jack Built and, begging the reader's pardon, The Twelve Days of Christmas. George Alexander Kohut provided a bibliography of comparable poems in his article "Le Had Gadya et les Chansons Similaires", Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. 31 (nr. 62), (Paris, Oct–Dec 1895) pages 240–246; also, Newell, William Wells, "The Passover Song of the Kid and an Equivalent from New England", Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol.18, nr. 68 (Jan–March 1905) pages33-48.

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